Tom Cruise Can't Afford to be a Nutjob Anymore

The New York Times is reporting this morning that Tom Cruise's thirteen-year deal with Paramount was allowed to lapse, mostly because he refuses to take a pay cut.

Cruise fans fears that, unless the hardworking actor learns some humility, an illustrious career which has matured from the cocky boy of Risky Business and Top Gun to more naunced performances in The Last Samurai and Collateral may burn out. “Right now,” said an insider close to the negotiations, “he is simply too expensive to employ.”

On the heels of a few failures, Cruise is just going to have to face facts that he is not the draw he once was. He might still be that draw had he not become such a major-league weirdo in the media over the last few years.

Being a religious star is one thing - Johnny Cash was religious - but being an antagonistic know-it-all prick is quite another, and now Tom Cruise is finally paying the price (pun not intended).